CT volumetry of artificial pulmonary nodules using an ex vivo lung phantom: Influence of exposure parameters and iterative reconstruction on reproducibility

摘要: Abstract Objectives To evaluate the influence of exposure parameters and raw-data based iterative reconstruction (IR) on measurement variability computer-aided nodule volumetry chest multidetector computed tomography (MDCT). Materials methods N = 7 porcine lung explants were inflated in a dedicated ex vivo phantom prepared with n = 162 artificial nodules. MDCT was performed eight consecutive times (combinations 120 80 kV 120, 60, 30 12 mA s), reconstructed filtered back projection (FBP) IR. Nodule volume diameter measured semi-automatically software. The absolute percentage error (APE) relation to 120 kV 120 mA s acquisition. Noise recorded for each every dataset. Results Mean 0.32 ± 0.15 ml 12.0 ± 2.6 mm, respectively. Although IR reduced noise by 24.9% average compared FBP (p  Conclusions Computer-aided is robust wide range settings, reproducibility at CTDI below 1.0 mGy only, but rate remains clinically irrelevant. reduction not detrimental setting semi-automatic MDCT.